Hilarius pope

Archdeacon of Rome, he was sent in 449 as legate of Leo the Great to the council of Ephesus, where the doctrine of Eutyches was to be approved. The session turned to intimidation: opponents were manhandled, and the council has gone down in history as the “Robber Council”. Hilarius refused to sign, cried out his opposition and had to flee the city in hiding, saying later that he owed his life to the protection of St John the Evangelist. Elected pope in 461, he governed six years, strengthened the authority of the Roman see in Gaul and Spain, and raised oratories at the Lateran baptistery and two libraries at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. He died in 468 and is kept on 29 February, the day that returns only one year in four.